Volume XXV, No. 12
March 2012
The Independent Medical Business Newspaper
Stepping up patient safety Health care as a team sport By Karyn D. Baum, MD, MSEd, and Albertine S. Beard, MD
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s the operation draws to a close, Nancy, a third-year medical student, is confused. She is sure there is one more sponge yet to be accounted for. But should she speak up? Her attending is well respected and a good physician—surely he must realize? Nancy wants to become a surgeon, and does not want to risk the anger of the chief surgeon by publicly pointing out a mistake. After all, she needs a letter from him if her dreams of a urology residency are ever to become reality. Many of us have been Nancy at some point in our careers. The Institute of Medicine’s 1999 publication “To Err is Human” brought into the public eye the gravity of the safety issues in health care, with estimates of between 44,000 and 98,000 deaths per year in the United States
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“Medical care” and “health care”
important to everyone in the community, so the difference is important to appreciate. choose: The MerriamAn avoidable conflict • A doctor/clinic with Webster dictionary better health care By E. John English, MD defines “health” as the quality rankings OR state of • A doctor/clinic with being free from illness or better medical care quality rankings injury. It defines “medicine” as These two ratings presently are lumped the science or practice of diagtogether as “health care.” Health care is a nosis, treatment, and prevenmajor contributor to any individual’s welltion of disease.” What’s espebeing, but it is not the only part. Medical cially relevant is that, begincare is also a major contributor to a long ning in the mid-1980s, what life. This article examines the distinction used to be known as “medical between “health care” and “medical care” care” was supplanted by the and questions a measuring system that iven only one choice, what would you
highlights one over the other under one “quality” banner. Both types of care are
CARE to page 10
SAFETY to page 12
IN THIS ISSUE: Community Caregivers Page 20